Mechanical aging trend in ethylene propylene rubber-insulated safety cables sampled from bwr nuclear power containment

Statistical analysis has been performed on variously aged ethylene propylene rubber insulation on cables removed from boiling water reactor-type containment. Temperature and dose rate conditions of such cables are not identical. Therefore, elongation at break data observed for such insulation are converted to each equivalent period under 60 °C, 10 mGy/h condition. The aging trend is found to be approximately slower by half than that expected from accelerated aging test results. Furthermore, this aging trend is used as a reference to fit to each elongation value, and the fitted curve is extrapolated to find the end of service life, which is defined as 70 % of absolute elongation. Lifetimes estimated from this method and from predictions by the accelerated aging test are compared on an Arrhenius plot. It is suggested that the latter lifetime estimation is shorter than actual. The temperature dependence also suggests a difference in a basic chemical reaction under the two aging conditions, which results in apparent differences in activation energies and pre-exponential factors.